Features
All My Friends To Take Over Downtown LA For a Second Year
– All My Friends
Destructo, aka AMFAMFAMF President Gary Richards, is back with a second year of
Headlining the two-day fest is Justice, doing a Saturday DJ set; and international house phenom Black Coffee on Sunday. Destructo will have a Saturday set as well. Also appearing are actor/singer Idris Elba, Busy P, Volac, Shift K3Y, DJ Harvey, Blond:ish, Kaz James, Phlegmatic Dogs, Bruno Furlan and more.
All My Friends will feature two stage reflecting last year’s popular “Friendzone” while a third stage will be modeled after a secret speakeasy. The spotlight will be on artists on top of the international house scene.
France’s Justice won a 2019 Grammy Award for best dance/electronic album with Woman Worldwide, while South Africa’s Black Coffee is making global waves as “an internationally heralded artist known for tribal sophistication, spiritual splendour and scintillating performance straight from his high-profile Ibiza residency,” according to a statement.
“Right now, it’s his time,” Richards tells Pollstar of Black Coffee. “He’s having a massive year. I try to bring an international flavor to the stage, so I thought, ‘Why don’t we bring him to L.A.?’”
Idris Elba may be primarily known as an actor, but his gaining notice in the music world after a much-talked-about performance at Coachella earlier this year. “I saw him in the U.K., where he’s from,” Richards says. “He’s rap, he takes some ragga and house, and puts it all on top of each other, and he makes amazing music.”
Richards, in his second year at the helm of AMFAMFAMF, has done a little bit of tinkering with All My Friends to better match his festival’s audience, which he tells Pollstar is a bit older than many he worked with prior to the LiveStyle-affiliated company. For instance, the space and number of artists is somewhat smaller to more comfortably accommodate those 21 years and older.
“If you make it 21 and older, you can walk around and drink, rather than shoved off to the side,” Richards told Pollstar. “The footprint won’t be as expansive but it will make it a tighter, fun event.”
About 20,000 fans turned out to All My Friends’ inaugural run in August 2018 that featured RL Grime, Gucci Mane, Jhene Aiko, M.I.A., Jamie XX and Armand Van Helden and more.